Hurried off to work after the cartoon ended. It was a royal pain in the rear. Good thing we weren't busy today. I had to try to explain to the managers why it would be impossible to use the mop to clean up the leaking orange juice cooler. The water just keeps coming back. We eventually put sandbags under them. (At least it's not like in 2017 and 2018, when the frozen food aisles were flooded for most of the summer.) Cleaning up that mess and constantly putting cold items away made me late for sweeping and almost made me late getting out of work.
I badly needed a stop at Common Grounds Coffee House on the way home. They were very busy with local students doing work on their laptops. I relaxed with a Pina Colada Matcha Cooler - pineapple, coconut milk, and matcha - and a huge banana chocolate chip muffin. The tea was a lot less sweet than I assumed it would be, and while it didn't taste bad, the pineapple pieces kept getting caught in my straw.
Changed, took out the recycling, and took my laundry downstairs after I got home, then spent the next few hours adding titles to the soundtrack inventory. Finished out the S titles and did the Ts. Albums added today included the three Superman soundtracks, Summer of '42, Sweet Charity, a double collection for the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie Swing Time and Shall We Dance, the TV special S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous, S'Gershwin, Thank God It's Friday, Thank Your Lucky Stars, the first two That's Entertainment collections and That's Dancing, the 1968 version of The Thomas Crown Affair, The Three Amigos, and the 1973 musical Tom Sawyer.
Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. They're now on the episodes with George Kennedy, Richard Paul, Judy Landers, and Joyce Bulifant. Charles complains about how their dinger sounds different, while Richard helps an audience member earn $50 with "__ Lantern."
Finished the night on YouTube watching game shows made exclusively for syndication. Most syndicated shows, even now, were originally made for the networks or cable before moving to be syndicated to various independent networks, but they have made shows just for that markets, like The Cross-Wits. This hybrid of Password Plus and crossword puzzles had two celebrities helping a contestant guess the crosswords. When the puzzle was completed, they had to guess what it was referring to. Gentlemanly Jack Clark is the host.
Cross-Wits wasn't the only hit game show to debut in syndication. Puttin' On the Hits had contestants lip-syncing to the popular songs of the mid-80's. Celebrity judges decided how well they matched the originals and what they brought to the table. Soap star Allen Fawcett was the host here. Apparently, this ran for four years, from 1984 to 1988. I'm shocked I don't remember it. I probably would have enjoyed watching everyone sing as a kid.
Most syndicated shows didn't last even four years. The Hollywood Connection from 1977 was a pretty blatant Match Game clone. Host Jim Lange asks six celebrities questions about themselves. The contestants bet on how they'll answer. While some of their stories are interesting, Jim Lange was hardly the right man to deal with the lunacy, and the format wasn't that exciting. It lasted six months.
Talk About came via Canada in 1988, where it ran on the CBC. In the US, it went into syndication, and later, the USA Network. Two teams, one returning champions, guess words associated with a topic. The other team gets whatever words they didn't and have to guess the topic from them. Buzzr ran this show briefly from 2022 to early this year, and it honestly seemed like a strange choice for them. Fast-paced and fun, but also kind of complicated. Wayne Cox is the host here.
Syndicated game shows go further back than many people realize. Home Run Derby gives us genuine history. Two hitters playing in 1960 see who can make the most home run hits for charity. The first episode features none other than Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays doing the slugging. A piece of genuine TV and sports history, and a rare chance to see two champs outside of their usual teams.
Syndicated game shows continue in the 21st Century. Let's Ask America allowed contestants to answer trivia and play at home. Four contestants connecting via online messenger service answer multiple choice questions. The ones who get the most answers move on to the next round. The bonus round was more like Jeopardy, with the winner being able to make wagers on their answers. Bill Bellamy was in charge of the episode I watched.
Explore the vast world of syndicated programming with these rare episodes!
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